avalanche
/ˈævəlæn(t)ʃ/noun, verb
avalanche is spelled A-V-A-L-A-N-C-H-E. The wrong spelling people search most is avalance: about 260 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 47 of all searches for the word. Avalanche is a noun meaning “A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice”. The plural of avalanche is avalanches.
How many letters and syllables are in avalanche?
| Letters | 9: A-V-A-L-A-N-C-H-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,368th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, avalance, about 260 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell avalanche?
Avalanche is spelled A-V-A-L-A-N-C-H-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 47 of the searches for avalanche in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is avalanche?
Avalanche appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce avalanche?
- UK /ˈævəlɑːnʃ/
- US /ˈævəlæn(t)ʃ/
Avalanche has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-avalanche.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of avalanche
- avalanches plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- avalanching participle, present
- avalanched participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does avalanche mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.
- 2
A fall of earth, rocks, etc., similar to that of an avalanche of snow or ice.
- 3
A sudden, great, or irresistible descent or influx; anything like an avalanche in suddenness and overwhelming quantity.
verb
- 1
To descend like an avalanche.
- 2
To come down upon; to overwhelm.
The shelf broke and the boxes avalanched the workers.
- 3
To propel downward like an avalanche.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Avalanche in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | avalanche |
| German | Lawine, Schneelawine, Eislawine, Gletscherlawine |
| Portuguese | avalanche , deslize, deslizamento |
| Spanish | alud, avalancha |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does avalanche come from?
From French avalanche, from Franco-Provençal (Savoy) avalançhe, blend of aval (“downhill”) and standard lavençhe, from Vulgar Latin *labanka (compare Occitan lavanca, Italian valanga), of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of Late Latin lābīna (“landslide”) (compare Franco-Provençal (Dauphiné) lavino, Romansh lavina), from Latin lābēs, from lābor (“to slip, slide”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).